Wildfire • D.M

N i n e

Alora rushed across the halls throwing the strap of her book bag across her shoulder as it bounced against her waist. She was late. Again.

She pounced through the double doors and into the classroom where the sound of her loud entrance echoed throughout the room. Her heart was thumping in her chest.
"Sorry I'm late Professor."

Professor trelawney looked up with her large binocular-like glasses.
"O-oh..yes." She didn't say much. She guessed both of them were still afraid of confrontation after the hallway incident.

On her way to her seat, Alora's eyes flickered up to a particular platinum blonde who in fact, already had his eyes set on her ever since she entered the room. Draco was staring.

"She lives!" Ron snorted as she plopped onto a tasseled cushion.

"Um.. so, how are you feeling?" Harry asked cautiously as if he was afraid that he might upset her again.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing much to talk about." She hummed in response.

"Then why did you sneak out last night?" Ron snickered the two boys looked at her intently.

"I was in my room all night." She blatantly lied.

"Oh c'mon Alora. We asked hermione to check on you after dinner last night and she told us you weren't there."

"It was dark, she probably walked into the wrong room or something."

Harry could obviously tell she was lying but decided not to pester her any further. He didn't want to pry too much no matter how much he was itching to know. He didn't want to make it too obvious that he was immensely concerned for her by making her uncomfortable with all the suspicions.
"Yeah, she probably didn't see properly." He muttered in agreement.

Separating herself from the bustling and noisy school, Alora placed herself in the green courtyard for a bit of light reading alone. The blankets of snow finally cleared up weeks ago and the sun was now shining it's rays through the tree leaves which casted shadows onto her face.

Since the incident yesterday, Harry had decided to refrain from chasing after her and give her some alone time. He was both embarrassed and confused about why she had left him on their date and instead locked herself away last night.

She had always been quite a reserved girl, she never liked to draw attention to herself or cause a scene when something bothered her and keep it to herself instead. No one in the school had ever seen Alora Winters cry since she'd step foot onto the grounds or at least until Harry brought her back from their date yesterday. Hence, everyone assumed that harry was the one who made Alora cry and pinned all the blame onto him. But nevertheless, he was more concerned about her than his reputation.

As she flipped a page, a tiny pink fragment fell upon her book. A single pink flower bud had fallen from the blooming tree overhanging her. She picked it up gently and smiled lightly... until she realised that it wasn't nearly close enough to the time of year when flowers began to bloom from trees. Winter had just barely ended and it couldn't be possible for flowers to bloom so early.

Alora looked up and was astonished to find that only one single branch directly above her had unusually bloomed with pink petals whereas the rest of the large tree was empty of any flowers .. or leaves for that matter.
With a suspicious look, she noticed the person standing close with his arm outstretched holding a wand. Her face immediately dropped and she swiped the petals off her book in one quick swift movement.

"Go away cormac." She deadpanned.

Instead he did the opposite and approached the girl, who found him utterly unappealing and desperate, with a sleazy grin across his lips.
" is that any way to treat your seniors?" He smirked.

Alora's eyes twitched.
"I'm serious mclaggen, I'm not interested."

"Are you sure about that sweetheart? Everyone is talking about you and Harry's disaster date yesterday, he doesn't know how to treat a girl, I can show you. He's not all that great y'know. I on the other hand can provide you with more quality company." He eyed her with an unsettling grin that made her feel repulsed.
He placed his slimy hand against the back of the bench next to Alora's shoulder to lean in close. She visibly cringed.

"Once again. No Thankyou." She pressed her lips.

He huffed arrogantly. "Just because you had your little slytherin friend on your side last time doesn't mean you should act all high and mighty princess. I don't care if he's been threatening the whole school to stay away from you, doesn't make you off limits to me."

"Excuse me?! W-what? Draco Malfoy?" Her eyebrow creased at the mention of him.
"What did you say?"

"Don't act like you don't know that he's been going around threatening boys to stop chasing after you. He's already threatened to hex someone just for merely mentioning your name in a provocative manner." He said with a sneer.

"I didn't! I had no idea." She defended.
Her mind stirred at the thought, draco was telling boys to stay away from her? But why?

"Well obviously potter didn't get the memo." He snickered as he swept a hand through his greasy hair.
But as soon as he had dipped his arm down to wrap around her shoulder, she had already stormed off with a fierce look upon her face.

Alora was both annoyed and confused. Annoyed that cormac couldn't leave her alone or take one of the many very obvious hints she had given him and confused at why Draco would concern himself over her. On one hand, she found it utterly unbelievable that he would actually do something that cunning but on the other hand she acknowledged that it meant that he cared. So many mixed emotions buzzed through her mind as she stirred out of her thoughts. But amongst all the confusion, one question stood out from her thoughts.

Where can she find Draco Malfoy?